29 jul 2014

My Review: The Angriest Man in Brooklyn (3/10)

"Reconciliation, in ninety minutes? Are you trying to kill yourself?"

I really didn't have any expectations going into this film, but I decided to watch The Angriest Man in Brooklyn for several reasons. First of all, I like Robin Williams despite his poor choice for roles over the past decades and I usually find his antics sort of amusing. Second, I will practically watch any film Mila Kunis stars in. Third, since I just finished watching Season 4 of Game of Thrones a couple of weeks ago I was anxious to see the imp, Peter Dinklage, back in action. And finally because Phil Alden Robinson was back in the director's chair after 12 years. Despite not being a huge fan of his most well known films: FIeld of Dreams, Sneakers, and The Sum of All Fears I still enjoyed them and found them entertaining. The Angriest Man in Brooklyn however is well below the standards he set because this was just lazy film making. There were terrible performances, bad editing, and weak dialogues which all combined perfectly to make this a mess of a movie. Williams and Kunis seemed like they were reading their lines when they were narrating the story and they didn't even try to give decent performances. Williams went way over the top trying to play this angry man, but you never believe his outbursts for a second. The entire premise is ridiculous and there wasn't one funny scene in the entire film. This was much worse than I anticipated as I at least expected to enjoy the performances, but no one really seemed to even try to make this a better film. The screenplay was perhaps one of the worst of the year. 

This was just a pointless film that explores themes we've seen done much better in the past. The entire premise is ridiculous. First of all you have Robin Williams playing an angry man who is always complaining about everything and then when his doctor (played by Mila Kunis) tells him he has a brain aneurism he forces her to tell him how much time he has left. She is going through a depressive stage in her life as well so she simply utters the first thing that comes to her mind: 90 minutes. With this shocking revelation, Williams' character tries to make amends with everyone he has hurt beginning with his family. His wife (played by Melissa Leo), his brother (Peter Dinklage), and his estranged son (Hamish Linklater). Meanwhile the doctor realizes that she made a huge mistake and decides to run after him and tell him the truth so you have Williams on the one hand running across Brooklyn while Kunis is unsuccessfully chasing him. He tries to make amends with each one, but somehow anger gets in the way and pushes everyone away. That is until they realize he is dying and also begin chasing him across half of Brooklyn. The film tries to make us sympathize with these characters, but the script doesn't help and only gets us more annoyed with the entire situation. 

Unfortunately Williams fails to create a character we can sympathize with despite his behavior. He simply didn't pull off the role and that hurt the entire film because it tries to be sentimental at the end but it never manages too. The comedy is also a huge miss here with no funny moments whatsoever. Not even a cameo from James Earl Jones was enough to put a smile on my face.It was just a huge mess. The film is simply disconnected from reality and tries to force the drama down the audience's throat. It does raise one question though, why do we always have to wait for a person to die or be terminally ill to forgive? That question could be explored in other films, but this one simply never even tries to make an effort at analyzing anything. I think that this movie doesn't even know what it wants to be and therefor was doomed from the very opening scene. 


No hay comentarios:

Publicar un comentario